Elation lights Off-Broadway hit Puffs
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The play portrays a certain famous wizard school from the perspective of the slightly nerdy and not-so-famous house called Puffs. Described as ‘a play for anyone who has never been destined to save the world’, Puffs are the outsiders of the magic school who disheartenedly observe as a certain boy wizard repeatedly saves the day. Written by Matt Cox and produced by Tilted Windmills Theatricals, the play is directed by Kristin McCarthy Parker with lighting design by Herrick Goldman.
The third iteration of the show opened at New World Stages in Manhattan last summer, where it’s still running. Puffs came to New World Stages from the Elektra Theatre but was originally staged at the Peoples Improv Theatre, a basement locale that gave the play a “downtown sensibility” according to Goldman. He and set designer Madeleine Bundy sought to keep that feel at New World Stages while upping the production value, a parity the LD describes as “a balance between the old and new stage.”
At New World Stages, Goldman has an automated rig of Elation LED luminaires to work with, a setup of Satura Spot CMY Pro LED moving heads, SixPar 300 LED Par lights, Colour 5 Profile LED ellipsoidal spots, Colour Chorus 24 LED battens and Fuze Wash Z350 PAR moving heads, along with some conventional fixtures.
The up-tempo nature of the show plays well to the strengths of an automated light. Ten Satura Spot CMY Pro LED luminaires with its 320W LED engine, zoom, colours and graphics do a lot of the heavy lifting, according to the LD. “The Satura Spots drive all the isolation looks on the small stage,” Goldman explains. “We use them to zoom in and establish location but as one scene happens on one side of the stage a different scene will then play out on the other side. The fixture has to adjust to the change of scene, which it does well.”
Puffs has been playing at New World Stages for nearly 10 months and because the rig is laden with LED lights, Goldman says that maintenance has been limited. David Carpenter of Tilted Windmills Theatricals, producers of the show, has also been pleased with the rig, commenting, “One of the joys of the Puffs journey has been adding new members to our family at every stage. When we transferred to New World Stages, we had the challenge of how to provide the level of magic that we needed to give our audiences an amazing experience.
“Elation stepped up to the plate and has been a fantastic partner to work with by providing solutions to our problems at the budget that we had to work with. It’s been a great experience and I can’t wait to work with them again.”
(Jim Evans)
